Troy Wolverton

San Jose

Senior Technology Correspondent at The San Francisco Examiner

Longtime tech and business reporter, columnist and editor. Signal: 415.515.5594.

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Articles

Trump SEC ends crypto crackdown of multiple SF companies

1 week ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

Five local cryptocurrency companies have seen federal investigations or cases against them go away or be put on hold amid President Donald Trump’s broader retreat from investigating alleged corporate misconduct. When he took office in January, Trump inherited from former President Joe Biden’s administration at least 21 cryptocurrency-related investigations or cases, most of them led by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to data from Public Citizen, a public-advocacy group.
Uber drops climate mentions from yearly investor update

2 weeks ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

As recently as November, Uber was touting the steps it was taking to address climate change. Now, it seems increasingly reluctant to discuss the subject. While its proxy statement last year mentioned the word “climate” 23 times, the one it released last month didn’t use the word at all.
Studies: Critical thinking drops with AI use, trust

2 weeks ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

Since the launch of ChatGPT more than two years ago, researchers have highlighted a growing number of drawbacks of generative artificial intelligence, including its negative effects on the environment, its tendency to make up responses whole cloth and its ability to be used to spread disinformation. You can add another concern to the list: its effect on users’ critical thinking skills.
California bill barring OpenAI for-profit transition dead

2 weeks ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

OpenAI is under the gun to transform from a nonprofit to a for-profit by the end of the year. The author of a state bill that would have barred that move quietly withdrew it last week. Last week, California Assemblymember Diane Papan stripped from Assembly Bill 501 text that would have applied to OpenAI.
OpenAI, Anthropic dominate 2025 Q1 venture capital funding

2 weeks ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

The venture and startup industries are increasingly being divided between a small number of haves in San Francisco and a much larger number of have-nots, a new report indicates. Venture investment in U.S. startups more than doubled in the first quarter from the same period last year to $91.5 billion, according to the report from industry research firm PitchBook. But nearly half of that tally went to just two San Francisco artificial-intelligence companies — OpenAI and Anthropic.
OpenAI raising record $40 billion in new venture round

3 weeks ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

OpenAI announced Monday it is raising up to $40 billion in the biggest-ever funding round for a startup by far. The new round pegs the San Francisco artificial intelligence developer’s worth at $300 billion, tying it with ByteDance as the second most valuable private company in the world after SpaceX, according to CB Insights, a venture industry research firm. SoftBank, the Japanese electronics conglomerate, is leading the round, providing $10 billion up front, all of which it plans to borrow.
Uber axes DEI goals for executive pay

3 weeks ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

Uber’s retreat from its diversity, equity and inclusion is more extensive than it previously acknowledged. The San Francisco company has ended a program where it determined executives’ pay in part by measuring their progress in diversifying its workforce, it said in its annual proxy statement last week. The ride-hailing giant also dropped a promise to include women and minority candidates when filling empty board seats or to consider diversity when looking at successors for its executives.
Trump corporate enforcement retreat ends probes of SF firms

3 weeks ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump and his administration have ed a broad retreat from investigating and policing corporate misconduct, providing a boon to a handful of San Francisco and Bay Area companies such as Ripple, Coinbase and Meta.
Is AI Worth It? A Growing Number of Artificial-Intelligence Skeptics Is Raising Doubts About a Utopian Future

4 weeks ago | nobhillgazette.com | Troy Wolverton

If you listen to the heads of artificial-intelligence companies, the venture capitalists investing in them, the researchers and software engineers developing new models and apps, or the numerous technology optimists, AI is about to lead us into a glorious future. The technology underpins Alphabet’s Nobel Prize–winning AlphaFold system, which can predict protein structures, potentially helping identify the cause of diseases or possible treatments for them.
Pokemon Go developer Niantic cutting dozens in SF layoffs

1 month ago | sfexaminer.com | Troy Wolverton

Niantic, the San Francisco developer of the smash-hit mobile game “Pokemon Go,” is laying off 68 employees after announcing plans to sell off its games business and refocus its operations. The company expects to make the cuts in two stages, one in May and the other in June, Christine Ofori, its chief people officer, said in a March 20 letter to the state Employment Development Department.